Granite Bay Post Office renamed for Victor Dew

Philip Wood/Press TribunePatty Schumacher, center, hugs one of the Marines her son, Lance Cpl. Victor Dew, served with in Afghanistan. Dew was killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2010, and the Granite Bay Post Office was renamed in his honor on April 4.

Philip Wood/Press TribuneU.S. Marine Cpl. Marvin Arnold recounts his experiences with his best friend Lance Cpl. Victor Dew, who died in combat in Afghanistan in 2010. The Granite Bay Post Office was renamed in Dew’s honor during a ceremony on April 4.

Philip Wood/Press TribuneLance Cpl. Victor Dew’s family surrounds the unveiling of the plaque in his honor, which was installed at the Granite Bay Post Office on April 4. Dew died in combat in Afghanistan in 2010.

Philip Wood/Press TribuneU.S. Post Office Sacramento District Manager Al Santos mounts a plaque on the wall during the dedication and renaming on April 4 of the Granite Bay Post Office in honor of Lance Cpl. Victor Dew, a Marine from Granite Bay who died in combat in Afghanistan in 2010.

File photoVictor Dew.

One day, when Marine Victor Dew and his good friend Marvin Arnold were sitting around outside, while serving a tour in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, a very large spider approached them.

“We alerted everyone to the presence of this spider,” Cpl. Arnold recalled. “Then we did what any respectable Marine would do and we caught it.”

They kept the spider in a jar until one time it leapt out onto Dew and disappeared.

“And (Dew) thinks it’s funny to grab a piece of grass and, as I’m bent over looking for it, he tickles the back of my neck,” Arnold said. “These experiences will last with me forever. They may not seem like much, but they mean the world to me.”

Dew died in combat on Oct. 13, 2010. He was 20 years old.

Two and a half years after his death, Dew’s family, friends and dozens of members of the community gathered for a ceremony on April 4 to rename the Granite Bay Post Office in his honor. A dedication plaque is now mounted at the entrance of the post office on Auburn Folsom Boulevard.

“It’s an honor for us as a family, and at the same time, it lets us know the community stands behind our military,” said Dew’s mother, Patty Schumacher.

During the ceremony, Arnold recounted how he and Dew spent countless hours together in the barracks watching funny videos on YouTube and zombie movies.

Arnold used to try and convince Dew to go out on the town with their buddies, but he was often reluctant. He was saving money for his wedding and honeymoon with fiancée, Courtney Gold, who he had proposed to at Disneyland only a few months before leaving for Afghanistan.

Dew graduated from Granite Bay High School in 2008. He was a second degree black belt in Zen Budokai Jujitsu, a martial art he began practicing at age 6. During high school, he played football for two seasons. He dreamed of becoming a Marine by the time he was 12 years old, and enlisted in 2009.

Instead of serving in the presidential color guard, Dew turned down the post and chose combat, said Rep. Tom McClintock, who introduced the bill to rename the post office in the fallen Marine’s honor. The legislation unanimously passed the House of Representatives in February 2012.

Lance Cpl. Dew was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his military vehicle during a mission. All four Marines in the vehicle lost their lives that day, and parents of two of the other Marines were in the audience at the dedication ceremony.

The plaque should be seen “as a token that we, too, will never forget,” McClintock said.

He said families who lose their loved ones who serve in the military grieve as much today as when the casualty officer knocked on their front door.